Joly a, 1868. 1 



JOUBNAL OP HORTIODLTUaB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



JULY 2-8, 1868. 



Royal Rotanig Society's Show closes, 

 Loutll Horticultural Show. 

 Uiivftl Horticultural Society, Promonatlo. 

 4 Sunday At-rEu Trinity. 

 Mcetintr of Entomolof^'ical Society. 

 Itoyal Horticultural Society. Fruit. Floral, 

 [and General Meeting. 



Averaire Temperature 

 near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 41 years. 



Day. 



7.S.S 



74.1 



7fi.l 



77.3 



76.3 



73.7 



78.8 



Nlcht. 

 50.9 

 60 1 

 5J.3 

 60.G 

 61.1 

 60.8 

 49.9 



Mean. 

 6-2.1 

 G2.1 

 68.2 

 63.9 

 68.7 

 62.'2 

 61.8 



Dava. 

 16 

 18 

 14 

 17 

 19 

 22 

 20 



Snn 



Rises. 



m. h. 

 .10 af 8 

 51 8 



Sun 



Sets. 



m. h. 

 17a«8 

 10 8 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. h. m. h 

 1 af 6 I 19 12 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 

 12 

 18 



o 



15 

 10 

 17 

 18 



Clock 



before 



San. 



m. fi. 

 3 47 



D.T LlBRARV 



Year fieW YORl 



184 

 185 

 186 

 187 

 188 

 189 

 190 



liOTA.N»CA 



From observations taken near London dnrinR the last fnrty-ono years, the average day temperature of the week is 74.9'; and its night 

 toinporature6U.5 . Ihegroatest heat was 97', on the 5th, 1852 ; and the lowest cold 35 , on the 7th, 1804. The greatest fall of ram was 

 O.'/S inch. 



PLANTS OF PREY. 

 RTUNATELY a throt 

 through all nature, an inherent lovo of mis- 

 chief for its own sake. In some it may be 

 said to constitute the whole warp, while in 

 others it only crops-out here and there among 

 a host of good and noble traits. It shows 

 itself in a thousand forms, many of them 

 harmless, and some criminal in the highest 

 degree. The miss in her teens who tries to 

 break hearts " just for the fun of the thmg," 

 or the lU'chin who, reaching his switch through your iron 

 paUng, tries to knock oif the heads of your Rhododendrons 

 for the same reason, both receive the impulse to do so from 

 the same source as the incendiary or bushranger, who will 

 fire a stackyard or shoot a traveller from no other motive 

 than the gratitication of this propensity. 



Were it needfid, many proofs might also bo adduced to 

 evidence that something near akin to this is also inherent 

 in the lower annuals : but that plauts and (lowei'S, which 

 have for ages been emblems of beauty, purity, and grace, 

 should show traces of this moral perversion is something 

 very hard to believe, yet some species do exhibit traits of 

 character which inevitably lead to this conclusion were 

 there not many reasons for suspecting that there are 

 functions connected with the economy of plants scarcely 

 yet dreamt of in our philosophy. 



As instances may be cited the well-known Pitcher- 

 plants, or Nepanthes, found in the tropical swamps of 

 India, Cliina. and elsewhere. N. distillatoria may be taken 

 as the representative plant of the order, although upwards 

 of twenty species have been found and described by bo- 

 tanists. After divesting its history of all those fabulous 

 stories which have gathered around it in bygone days, 

 when travellers' tales were not what they now arc, it still 

 remains one of the most curious plants in existence. It is 

 of a half-shrubby character, 4 or Ti feet in height, and the 

 flower is a panicle of greenish yellow ilorets, about which 

 there is nothing remarkable ; but the oblong leaf has 

 attached to its extremity by a gracefully-coiled tendril a 

 pitcher-like vessel of chaste and elegant form, furnished with 

 a close-fitting lid, which opens on a membranous hinge 

 when fully developed. This pitcher contains a quantity of 

 sweetish but wholesome water, and is generally found a 

 little less than half-full. It was once thought that this 

 liquid was an accumulation of dew stored up by the plant 

 during the night, and kept to sustain its flagging energies 

 under the next day's sun, or that it was intended for the 

 use of wearj', panting beasts and men, from which suppo- 

 sition comes the name Nepenthes, sorrow-soothing. It is 

 now known, however, to be a secretion from the plant 

 itself, though for what purpose has never been clearly 

 explained ; but from the fact of the plant never being 

 found except where there is water, we may infer that it 

 is not a provision of nature for quenching the thirst of 

 animals : indeed, from the shape of the vessel, and from 

 its never being full, very few of these, except man, could 

 avail themselves of its contents even if they required 

 to do so. 



No. 879.-VOL. XV., New Seeies. 



But perhaps some may say. Do the pitchers not serve 

 for drinking fountains to moths and butterllies, and all the 

 myriad forms of insect life with which tiiose regions teem ? 

 and would it not be more in keeping with the order of 

 things in these lands to see a gaily-painted humming bird 

 sipping from a fairy cup growing on a tree, instead of 

 drinking at a muddy pool '.' Perhaps it would. At any rate 

 we have ample proofs that the contents of these vessels 

 are highly appreciated by flies, moths, and other insects. 

 Attracted by the slightly saccharine nature of the secre- 

 tion and by the always-open lid, they descend, but it is 

 only to taste the bitterness of death, for they never return. 

 Their egress is prevented by reversed glands placed roimd 

 the inside of this treacherous pitcher, which pointing 

 downwards, are no obstruction so long as the victim is 

 going in that direction, but when, from fright or satiety, an 

 ascent is attempted — sad thought to bibulous men and 

 moths — it is all but impossible. 



The existence, conformation, and arrangement of these 

 glands put a verdict of accidental death altogether out of 

 the question. It has been said that the dead insect when 

 decayed or during decomposition ministers to the health of 

 the plant; but this is also highly improbable, for some of 

 those in this country which grow most luxuriantly in our 

 stoves produce no pitchers at iill, and even those which do 

 have comparatively few opportunities of gratifying their 

 insectivorous appetite, yet live and thrive like other honest 

 plants ; so that the case seems to stand thus : These dead 

 flies either are or are not necessary or benelicial to the 

 plant : if it be proved that they are not, then most as- 

 suredly the fly is not the benelited object, and the only 

 legitimate inference we can draw is that the death of the 

 insect is all that is sought. 



Another plant, a briglit tiny thing, with a gladsome 

 name, against which a similar charge might be preferred, 

 is to be found growing plentifully on some of our own bogs 

 and marshes ; but as the evidence against it is not so 

 conclusive I will not press for a conviction. Minute flies 

 are said to have been often found within its suspicious- 

 looking little tentacles, but they may have got there by 

 accident, and not being able to release themselves have 

 been the means of bringing down the breath of slander 

 upon the pretty little Sundew. In the case of another 

 member of the same familJ^ however, these reasons do not 

 obtain, consequently it cannot be so gently dealt with. 

 The Dionica musoipula is known in tliis country only as a 

 very tender greenhouse or cool stove plant, diflicult to 

 grow, yet well repaying all the care and attention it may 

 receive by its curious structure and habits. The leaf con- 

 sists of, or rather the true leaf is terminated by, a toothed 

 apparatus composed of two lobes hinged together in much 

 the same fashion as the shells of the mussel or oyster, and 

 in general appearance resembling nothing so much as a 

 common u'on rat-trap. The inner surfaces of these lobes 

 are covered with a gummy substance, and on each are 

 placed three or four bristles in such positions that any 

 fly entering must touch tliem, wliich springs the trap ; for 

 these hairs being highly irritable, they in some way com- 

 municate the touch to the nervous system, if such there 



No. 1031.— Vol. XL., Old Seeies. 



